Charmides, and Other Poems

Transcribed from 1913 Methuen and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
BY OSCAR WILDE
METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON
This volume was first published in 1913
Wilde’s Poems , a selection of which is given in this volume , were first published in volume form in 1881, and were reprinted four times before the end of 1882. A new Edition with additional poems , including Ravenna , The Sphinx , and The Ballad of Reading Goal , was first published ( limited issues on hand-made paper and Japanese vellum ) by Methuen & Co. in March 1908. A further Edition ( making the seventh ) with some omissions from the issue of 1908, but including two new poems , was published in September , 1909. Eighth Edition , November 1909. Ninth Edition , December 1909. Tenth Edition , December 1910. Eleventh Edition , December , 1911. Twelfth Edition , May , 1913.
A further selection of the poems , including The Ballad of Reading Gaol , is published uniform with this volume .
He was a Grecian lad, who coming home With pulpy figs and wine from Sicily Stood at his galley’s prow, and let the foam Blow through his crisp brown curls unconsciously, And holding wave and wind in boy’s despite Peered from his dripping seat across the wet and stormy night.
Till with the dawn he saw a burnished spear Like a thin thread of gold against the sky, And hoisted sail, and strained the creaking gear, And bade the pilot head her lustily Against the nor’west gale, and all day long Held on his way, and marked the rowers’ time with measured song.
And when the faint Corinthian hills were red Dropped anchor in a little sandy bay, And with fresh boughs of olive crowned his head, And brushed from cheek and throat the hoary spray, And washed his limbs with oil, and from the hold Brought out his linen tunic and his sandals brazen-soled,
And a rich robe stained with the fishers’ juice Which of some swarthy trader he had bought Upon the sunny quay at Syracuse, And was with Tyrian broideries inwrought, And by the questioning merchants made his way Up through the soft and silver woods, and when the labouring day